Wedding venues

Usually not. At many venues the room is included once you reach a minimum spend: you commit to a number of covers, and if you reach it the room comes with them. A separate hire fee turns up mainly at manor houses, palaces and historic buildings, where the catering may come from another supplier. Ask directly whether there is a hire fee, a minimum spend, or both — that is where the real cost of a venue starts.

Usually the food for the whole evening, a standard drinks package, the staff and the tableware. Depending on the venue, premium drinks, a cocktail bar, cooking in front of the guests, the late-night food, the candy bar and special menus can all sit outside it. Ask separately for the price of the children’s menus, and ask whether the figure includes VAT. Flowers and table decor are not normally part of the menu and often come from another supplier.

The rules vary a great deal from one venue to the next. Some accept drinks brought in, against a fee per bottle or per person; others refuse outright, because the drinks are part of what they sell. Ask whether you can bring particular drinks in and whether there is a charge for them, including for wine or țuică.

The contract usually covers a set window of hours, and anything beyond it is billed separately. Ask when the included window starts and ends, what each additional hour costs, and whether anything changes for the music or the staff once that hour passes.

The band, the photographer, the videographer and the other suppliers working that day generally need feeding too. Ask how many covers have to be reserved and whether their menu is priced differently from the guests’. Then ask each supplier how many people are in their team and give the venue a single total.

Ask what the minimum number of covers is, until when the final number can be changed, and what happens if you end up below the minimum spend. Clarify what happens to the deposit if you cancel or move the date, and what happens if the venue can no longer honour the booking.